Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageP.I. Private Investigations (1987)
Director: Nigel Dick
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
First feature from pop video impresario Nigel Dick, keeping an eye on the critical success of After Hours and Something Wild. Joey (Rohner) is the uncool yuppie who stumbles into someone else's trauma and emerges a more together person, his tormentors this time a gang of bent cops. The humour stems from a series of seemingly fated coincidences. After being unfairly passed over for promotion at work, he returns to his apartment to find a body in the shower and an alien tape on his answering machine, which contains information that could help Joey's journalist father (Zerbe) expose police corruption, and turns Joey into a marked man. Razor-faced Ryan (Sharkey) is the crooked detective assigned the job, but he consistently bungles his opportunities and degenerates into a cop of the Keystone variety. Similarly, as our hero is relentlessly pursued against a soundtrack of Dick's video hits, the film slides into self-parody, despite some outrageous moments and inspired twists.Author: EP
Cast & crew
Director: Nigel Dick
Producer: Steven Golin, Sigurjon Sighvatsson
Cast: Clayton Rohner, Ray Sharkey, Paul LeMat, Talia Balsam, Phil Morris, Martin Balsam, Anthony Zerbe, Robert Ito, Vernon Wells full cast
Duration: 91 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade
Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this
Martin Provost discusses 'Séraphine'
Trevor Johnston talks to the director of 'Séraphine' about bringing a little known French painter back to life
Our verdict on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson ends a triumphant decade with a sentimental misfire with this lush Alice Sebold adaptation
On the set of Ken Loach's 'Route Irish'
Dave Calhoun meets Ken Loach on the set of his forthcoming Iraq war movie
Stephen Poliakoff discusses 'Glorious 39'
Stephen Poliakoff’s ‘Glorious 39’ is his first film for cinema since ‘Food of Love’ in 1997. Dave Calhoun met him
Is 'Paranormal Activity' the new 'Blair Witch'?
How does a film go from DIY experiment to box-office smash? 'Paranormal Activity' director Oren Peli explains
Steven Soderbergh on 'The Informant!' and 'The Girlfriend Experience'
We talk to Steven Soderbergh about his two forthcoming films: one featuring a porn star, the other a chubby Matt Damon
A gateway to all things 'New Moon'
In anticipation of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', Time Out is offering the chance to pick up a limited edition pack with three exclusive magazines and a free poster.
The films that deserve a TV spin-off
With Roland Emmerich suggesting he'd like to make a '2012' TV spin-off, we propose some more movie-to-TV serialisations
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations
What do you think?
Post your review now